Gov. Corbett's poll numbers remain grim

Pennsylvania voters are down on President Barack Obama, but they remain really unhappy with Gov. Tom Corbett, a dissatisfaction fueled heavily by the governor's cuts to education and the ongoing economic slump, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll.

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By BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

poconorecord.com

By BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

Posted Feb. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

Posted Feb. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Pennsylvania voters are down on President Barack Obama, but they remain really unhappy with Gov. Tom Corbett, a dissatisfaction fueled heavily by the governor's cuts to education and the ongoing economic slump, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll.

With the election less than 10 months away and despite some modest improvement in his standing, voters by wide margins still view Corbett unfavorably, don't think much of the way he's doing his job, and don't think he deserves re-election, according to the poll.

Almost one in five (19 percent) of voters less than pleased with the way the governor is doing his job say it is because of cuts to education, according to the poll. More than one in eight (13 percent) named economic issues as the source of their displeasure.

G. Terry Madonna, the poll's director, could not think of another state where education is playing such a major role in a governor's standing with voters.

"He's still in a perilous re-election situation," Madonna said. "The basic problem has to do with the cuts. The problem is that the narrative has been (teacher) layoffs, staff cutbacks, cutting the music and art programs, what's happening to sports programs. That's the narrative coming out of one school district after another all over the state. ... Education is huge and likely to dominate (the election)."

The poll of 580 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

The poll showed fewer than a quarter of voters (24 percent) had a strongly or somewhat favorable view of the governor, with almost half (48 percent) viewing him somewhat or strongly unfavorably.

Corbett actually got a slight bump in job approval, with almost a quarter saying he is doing a good or excellent job (up from 19 percent).

But support among the people who think he deserves re-election isn't entirely solid. Forty percent answered no when asked if they would vote for Corbett, no matter who ran against him.

Eight Democrats have announced plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. The poll did not ask how well Corbett fares head to head against each candidate, but previous polls by other organizations have shown every Democrat ahead of him for now.